WhatsApp is partially back online after global outage hits millions of users

Meta’s messaging app WhatsApp is slowly coming back online after a global outage hits millions of users. At around 0900 GMT, WhatsApp reported the issue has been fixed after millions of users reported problems earlier on Tuesday.

Outage monitoring site Downdetector said that over 68,000 WhatsApp users had reported problems with the app in the United Kingdom. Another 19,000 users in Singapore and 15,000 people in South Africa also reported outages.

As of the time of writing, thousands of WhatsApp users in Brazil, Madrid, Spain, and Imola still don’t have access to the app. Downdetector reported it had “received 1393 reports, originating from RussiaUnited KingdomRepublic of FranceRepublic of IndiaBrazil and 85 more countries.”

In a statement,  a spokesperson for WhatsApp’s parent company Meta Platforms said, “We know people had trouble sending messages on WhatsApp today. We have fixed the issue and apologize for any inconvenience.”

So far, Meta has not disclosed the cause of the outage.

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app for smartphones such as the iPhone, Android phones, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry. It is used by over 1 billion users worldwide. Whatsapp allows users to send and receive messages, photos, and other information and is considered an alternative to text messages or SMS.

When WhatsApp had an hours-long outage last October, it hit trading of assets from cryptocurrencies to oil, before traders switched to alternative platforms such as Telegram.